1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tomographic image generation device and a tomographic image generation method wherein a plurality of tomographic images of a subject are generated based on a plurality of radiographic images obtained by applying radiation to the subject from different imaging directions, and compression processing is applied to the generated tomographic images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in order to observe an affected part of the body in more detail using a radiographic imaging apparatus, tomosynthesis imaging is proposed, where imaging operations are performed with applying radiation to the subject from different imaging directions by moving the radiation source to obtain a plurality of radiographic images, and the radiographic images are added to provide an image in which a desired slice plane is emphasized (see, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20080247509).
In the tomosynthesis imaging, radiographic images of the subject, which are taken at different exposure angles with moving the radiation source parallel to the radiographic image detector or along a circular or elliptical trajectory depending on the characteristics of the imaging apparatus and necessary tomographic images, are obtained, and the radiographic images are reconstructed to generate tomographic images. Specifically, the tomographic images can be obtained by adding the radiographic images after shifting the radiographic images relative to one another, adjusting the size of each radiographic image, etc.
Further, it is proposed to develop the above-described tomosynthesis imaging to the mammography.